Trenton grad Crook had historic 4-HR day for Gloucester County College

Narciso Cook, shown here celebrating an American Legion win last summer, had a huge day earlier in the week for Gloucester County College going 5-for-6 with 4 HRs and 7 RBIs.Michael Mancuso/The Times

Last Tuesday morning didn’t get off to an ideal start for Narciso Crook.

“I had just gotten the flu,” Crook, a 2012 Trenton High graduate, said. “I woke up that day feeling weak. I thought it was going to be an awful day.”

To make matters worse — or so Crook thought — was that his Gloucester County College baseball team was set to hit the road to take on Atlantic-Cape Community College that afternoon.

There was nothing in Crook’s intuition at that time that gave him optimism that a historic day would be on the horizon, one in which he would go 5-for-6 with four home runs and seven RBIs, especially after he struck out his first at-bat.

Crook tried to put that at-bat behind him as quickly as possible and make the most of his remaining plate appearances.

“The next at-bat I fouled off a few pretty good pitches and then I got a pretty good pitch, a low change-up, and I got a hold of it and it went over the fence in left-center field,” Crook said of the solo shot, his fourth of the season at that time.

He singled through the hole between shortstop and third base in his third at-bat. From there, the show was on.

A day that didn’t start off ideally for Crook quickly morphed into one of the best games of his young collegiate career, if not his entire career, as he started 3-for-4 with two homers, igniting his team to what wound up being a 26-4 victory.

For as remarkable as Crook’s historic, four-homer afternoon was, how he began playing baseball, which eventually led him to Gloucester C.C. is even more astonishing.
Never played a sport

He moved to Trenton from his native Dominican Republic when he was 11 years old and at that point of his life had never played a sport.

But his mother, Carmen, married an American named Alvis Darby, a standout wide receiver at the University of Florida who had spent parts of three seasons in the early 1970s with the Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Oilers in the NFL.

“He told me I was going to play a sport,” Crook said. “He knew how Trenton was and that playing sports would help keep me out of the streets. So I figured I’d go play some baseball because my cousin (Angel Pena) was playing. I figured I’d just go and be good at it. It was ridiculous that I thought that.”

While that thought may have been ridiculous his first year, he belted 20 homers his 12-year-old season en route to leading Chambersburg to the Mayor’s Cup.

While Crook was big for his age group, he was also young. He may have been 5-foot-10 as a 12-year-old in Little League but he entered high school and played varsity baseball as a freshman at 13 years old.

“Before I played for Trenton High I didn’t even play Babe Ruth,” he said. “That big step was something I had to do. I knew it was going to be rough for me, but I had to pick it up. Something I really took to heart was not being the worst kid in the field at that time. At first I just wanted to be better than people on our team so that I could earn a starting spot.”
‘A joy to coach’

Whether it was Crook’s coach at Trenton High, Paul Ash, his manager with Trenton Posts 93/182, Doug Moore, opposing coaches in both the CVC and the MCALL, or former players and coaches still active in the local baseball scene like former Steinert standout Dave Gallagher — who played 17 years of professional baseball, eight in the MLB — former Steinert head coach Richie Giallella and former Hamilton head coach Jimmy Maher, many seemed in awe of the potential Crook had if he could refine his natural talent.

“He played for me and Richie (Giallella) last fall on our Gallagher Showcase team, and I’ll tell you, he was a joy to coach,” said Maher, now manager of the Trenton Generals of the Atlantic Coast Baseball League (ACBL), whom Crooks will play for this summer. “You could just see the tools that he had. He would do things at times that no one else could do.”

Crook wound up making a late decision to enroll at Gloucester to get away from the capital city for a little bit.

Though there was some talk about Crook being drafted last June, Maher believes that a year or two of playing at Gloucester in addition to playing with the Generals this summer, will prove to be vital in Crook’s development.

“I think without question he’s going to get a chance to play pro ball,” Maher said. “The concern with him last year was, because he came from Trenton, because he’s young and he hasn’t seen great pitching yet, if he would have went to pro ball, he probably would have gotten eaten alive his first year.

“Now he’s had a year of facing junior college pitchers, and he’ll have this summer in our league. I really expect him to be a draft choice out of Gloucester next year.”

One of the more amazing aspects of Crook’s freshman campaign — one on which he’s hitting .345 (38-for-110) with 10 doubles, seven homers, nine stolen bases, 32 runs and 33 RBIs in 30 games — is he doesn’t even turn 18 until July 12.

A professional prospect
“He has everything you look for in a professional prospect,” Maher said. “He can run, he can throw, he has power ... and he’s a great kid.”

While Crook said getting drafted and having the opportunity to play professionally is something he has aspired to do since he first recognized his talent, Gloucester C.C. is currently 29-2 and have its sights set on the seventh National Junior College Athletic Association national championship in program history.

“Right now I think of college baseball first,” Crook said. “I love this team and we want to go to the national championship and win it. That’s our goal.

“The (MLB Amateur) draft is in June so that doesn’t come until after the season. It would be nice to get drafted and see the opportunities that open up, but winning a national championship is my main goal right now.”

Contact Kevin Maloney at Kevmaloney33@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter at Kevmaloney33.